Between Ceremony & Reception

The wedding ceremony has been set for 2:00 p.m. Not the time we would have picked but that is all that was available. So the big question - for any brides out there that are having an earlier ceremony and a reception later in the day (ours at 6:30 p.m.) - what is everyone planning to do between the time. Looking for some creative ideas. The FI had suggested everyone get changed into bathing suits and play pool games but I don't want to have most people wasted before the reception and I think it takes away from the wedding day itself. What does everyone else think?

I am concerned about everyone getting completely trashed too in all the waiting around.

If it came to it, we were thinking of having a cocktail 'hour' which is actually more like three hours - but working with the hotel to provide a very low alcohol cocktail - everyone is drinking and socialising, having a good time, but not a lot of alcohol is actually being drunk - more like a fancy punch - and also having finger food circulating during the time, so people are eating little bits and peices (we would then skip entrees at the reception and just have a main meal and dessert).

Just a thought. Low alcohol cocktails (or even mocktails) will be cheaper too! bonus

I hear what your concern is totally!!!! We're getting married at 3pm and the dinner reservation isn't until 6pm and we are worried about people downing a few quick drinks in between and being hammer by dinner. It is hot and it is their vacation too. So we're just hoping that pictures take a while and if we mingle with people they will talk and not pound back the drinks. I am getting married in 5 months I'll let you know how it goes..

we got married at 2-2:30 pm and our reception was at 6:30. by the time we were done our pictures it was almost 4 and aside from the last 30 mins or so our guests were with us while pics were being taken.

we didn't plan anything for our guests in that in between space. me and hubby went to have alone time before the reception. i think most of our guests either went back to their rooms to relax or went to the lobby bar for a drink or two. but nobody went to the pool cuz they didn't want to deal getting dressed again. and nobody showed up hammered for the reception. even my biggest drinkers were fine and just started drinking hard at the reception.

i had the same concern about people being super drunk for the wedding events but my guests had lots of respect for our day. that and we got married on the 5th day there so everyone was pretty much tired of being super drunk by that point. lol. they got that out of their system within the first 3 days there.

We got married at 3pm and had a 7:30pm reception with a cocktail hour in between. This was perfect for us as guests had time to go back to their rooms and freshen up while we had our pictures taken. We also had a little bit of time to freshen up after the pictures before the reception, which was great because it can be exhausting posing for beach photos in 30 degree weather with heavy humidity